


A Little Control

by Joysweeper



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Non-Sexual Bondage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-05
Updated: 2012-10-05
Packaged: 2017-11-15 16:59:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/529518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joysweeper/pseuds/Joysweeper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When you feel like you've lost any command you had on your own life, finding solace can get a little odd-looking.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Little Control

"Hey, ace. You in here?"

Luke flinched guiltily, accidentally thumping the bulkhead as he did so. There went any hope of pretending he wasn't there. "Shira! Just a minute!" He tugged as quietly as he could at the binders on his wrists. They continued to hold him.

Even with a door in the way, the voice of his wing guard and frequent companion Shira Brie was distinct. She had an edge to her voice, a little like Leia did when angry, but unlike Leia's, it never really faded completely. " _Why_ are you in a cleared-out storeroom, Luke?"

"Just catching a nap. I didn't sleep well last night, you know how Klivian snores," he called back, turning in place and looking around frantically. Where was the _key_?

"Worst lie I've ever heard. I'm coming in."

There it was. As the door slid open behind him and the lights came on, Luke awkwardly fumbled with the key device and hit the release button. The binders sprang energetically open with a _snap_ that he could have sworn sounded as loud as a TIE on a strafing run. He caught them before they could drop to the desk.

Shira put a hand on his shoulder with a sort of cool pleasurable shock and pressed down, using it for balance as she peered around his side to see what he held. "Manacles?"

"It's - not what it looks like," Luke mumbled, not at all sure. His face was heating up.

He deposited them atop the desk with a clatter and tried to slip his hands into his pockets - the best thing about wearing a Rebel pilot's uniform when out of the cockpit, aside from the fact that it was insulated and _warm_ , was that it had a lot of big pockets - but she was too quick for him, seizing his left wrist with her free hand and tweaking at his skin, which was red from straining against the metal. His right wrist was fine. The synthetic skin didn't care about pressure.

"You were alone in a dark, quiet room for fifteen minutes wearing manacles for part of it, even though you had the release right there," Shira told him. "From what I've heard, you've been disappearing for half an hour at a time for weeks." Her face and voice were unreadable, but she hadn't moved. He knew she had most of her weight on one leg and was still balancing with the hand on his shoulder, completely unaware of what she was doing to him.

Flustered, Luke said, "It's - I was- Shira, I..." He shut up and closed his eyes. Deep breath, in through the nose and out through the mouth, like Ben had taught him. Even if the reminder of the Jedi arts he was definitely _not_ learning right now provoked a surge of guilt, the technique was calming.

Finally his wing guard took her hands off him, which he regretted a little even as he was glad. The storeroom was small enough that she still stood close, but then again Shira usually did stand closer to him than was strictly necessary. He turned to face her, to look the little ways down into her curiously still face, her startlingly green eyes.

He could have come up with something. In his time working for the Alliance Luke had learned to get into all kinds of roles, and lie fluidly when he had to.

He didn't have to now. Luke had only known Shira Brie for a few months, but he already felt close to her. With Wedge and many other Rebels not having forgotten that Luke had technically deserted them after Hoth - with Leia being so preoccupied with the search for Han - with Han himself being a bounty hunter's prize - with Ben's spirit conspicuously absent, she might well be the closest friend he had who wasn't a droid. They trusted each other - well, they had to, being wing guards, but he never got that feeling around her that he felt from so many of the Rogues, like they weren't sure of him anymore even if they worked well together on assignments.

Sometimes he thought she found him attractive. He found _her_ attractive, but it didn't seem right to ask, when his training wasn't even complete, when he still planned to go back and finish. And... Leia was so busy these days, but he knew she wanted him around when she was around; she was not about to crumble, but she badly wanted support. He knew how she felt. It wouldn't be fair to her if he was... distracted.

Better not to ask. In the long term, Shira enthusiastically agreeing would probably be worse than her rejecting him.

"You know about the battle of the Sixela system, right?" he asked at last. "A few years ago?"

Shira blinked. He imagined he could see her mind work behind those eyes, processing a question that must have seemed like it came out of nowhere. "Commander Rezi Soresh lured a Rebel fleet and an Imperial one to Sixela, then used some kind of experiment to force the sun to go nova. Both fleets escaped." She blinked again and smiled wryly. "A little before my time, ace, I wasn't with the Rebels then. You were part of it, though."

"Yeah." Luke touched the back of his neck with his real hand. Leia had taken him to her own minder, when it was over. The memories weren't as intrusive now, but he'd never be able to talk about it easily, he suspected. "This isn't about the battle itself, though. I don't know if you heard - Soresh captured me two weeks before the fleets arrived, and he..."

"He was in charge of Project Omega," she said. A shadow crossed her face, and no wonder. The project, its results, had been monstrous. "He tried injecting you with serums and torturing you into becoming his personal brainwashed assassin."

He tried to smile. "Right. It was a long two weeks." Leia, if she was here, might have said that he was making horrible understatements again. Shira just nodded, and he went on. "There were a few things there that weren't... awful. Some I can't stand now, the ones he gave me so I'd feel better when he was there. I don't eat raw muja anymore. But... he put me in binders. A little more solid than these. And-"

The words stuck in his throat. Luke realized that he didn't want to tell her just how he had escaped the binders. How he'd felt the Force in them and had talked to it, talked to them, asking them to loosen... and eventually they had, just enough that he'd been able to pull free. They hadn't been opened and they'd stayed intact, so it wasn't a Jedi technique, not like the ones Yoda had lectured about. Talking to inanimate objects was... well, he suspected that she'd stop treating him like someone normal.

Luke coughed. "Well, I got out of them, even if I couldn't escape the cell. And that was - it was good."

"A little bit of control in a situation with none." Her expression was sober and sympathetic, and he felt tremendously self-conscious, but he had to finish.

"Probably. Anyway, it's just... when I'm in binders, or I've been tied up, and I know I'm not actually stuck, it feels... good now. Maybe that's strange," he added ruefully, aware that he wouldn't tell her everything. He'd tested his ability to get the Force to free him; so far it had worked every time, even if it took a while sometimes.

The idea that when he was bound or shackled he could ineffectually fight those bindings and look subdued, look helpless, but it was all a ruse, that he could in fact escape any restraints put on him whenever he chose, he just wasn't choosing to yet... It was a good one. Getting free without opening the cuffs felt good, almost soothing. Luke had been doing it more often recently. Ever since Bespin.

Shira laid a hand on his bicep, crinkling the orange sleeve, and Luke blinked. He'd been staring at nothing, lost in thought. Now he looked down again and was relieved to see her smile. There was nothing uncomfortable or mocking in it. She wasn't smiling to mask pain and uncertainty, like Leia did sometimes. Shira's expression was just simple, honest reassurance and amusement. "Oh, it's strange, ace. Probably because _you're_ strange. But nothing wrong with it. War is stressful. We've all got odd little ways to try and cope."

"Don't spread it around?" he asked. "I don't want to imagine what the Rogues would do if they found out." Assuming their chill towards him was starting to thaw. He thought it was. Hoped, anyway.

"Oh, they won't hear it from me. Just make sure you never lose track of the key releases," Shira half taunted. She drew back a little, studying his face, and then leaned back in to wrap her arms around him fiercely. Startled, Luke didn't know to do with his hands. It was only after she had briskly patted his back and let go that he knew, he should have touched her back. "Really, Luke. Don't _worry_ about it. You can trust me." That edge in her voice was gone - or if not gone, covered.

"Thanks, Shira. It... means a lot to me." He didn't deserve his friends. Part of him thought maybe he did; if he told her, if he told anyone what Vader had said, who he might be...

But not now, when she looked into his eyes, smiling in that way. He didn't know if he'd ever met anyone who could look this kind. It wasn't something he'd thought to expect from his keen, often sardonic wing guard.

Luke wanted to smooth away the lock of red hair that flopped into her deep, lovely eyes. He didn't. He wanted her to lean a little closer and kiss him. She didn't. The moment ended, and the usual friendly edge to her voice came back. "Now, I'm going to get some caf. Come, stay, do as you want." Shira turned away towards the door, looking back over her shoulder and joking, "If you're up for it, someday I'll get you alone and shackle you better than you can shackle yourself."

For a moment Luke thought he felt a chill in his nicely insulated uniform, but it passed. He smiled, and followed. Being near her felt better than pretending to be trapped.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a fan of Marvel Star Wars, the comic series that came out in the seventies and eighties. Some of the stories are exceptionally silly, but some are surprisingly complex, and almost all of them are great fun.
> 
> Shira Brie, his wing guard, is part of one of the most fascinating storylines. I know she comes back decades later, but I'm much more interested in her at this point in time. Did I make things too obvious? Didn't want to mention Lumiya.
> 
> Luke is tied up, handcuffed, etc several times in the series, and after the first time he's never remotely concerned. He gets captured once and goes along with his completely nonthreatening Hiromi captors, and when a friend asks why he hasn't broken free yet, he just says he wants to see what they're up to, he can get free when he needs to, and he's enjoying this.
> 
> I also referenced the events of Rebel Force: Uprising, because that fascinates me too.


End file.
